James to run 30 marathons this year to support charity

James Abrahams, 30, from Stamford is running 30+ marathons in a year for charity. EMN-160705-113341001

Published:10:30Saturday 14 May 2016

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A runner who lost his mother to cancer 18 months ago has set himself the challenge of running over 30 marathons in a year to raise vital funds for charity.

James Abrahams, 30, who said he was “not sporty or athletic” before starting his fundraising campaign, ran his first marathon in Manchester in April last year.

By the end of 2015, he had successfully completed nine of them – in locations as diverse as Mablethorpe, Dublin and Istanbul – as well as a tough 45-mile ultra marathon in Wales.

The bar worker, who lives inPrimrose Way, Stamford, enjoyed the events and for 2016 decided to push himself even harder to raise funds for Sarcoma UK.

James said: “After starting to take it seriously last year, running began to take over my life.

“A friend of mine had done 15 marathons in a year successfully so I thought I would try and do something similar.

“But people in the running community kept telling me about more and more events – and before I knew I had more than 30 planned for 2016.”

James’ mother, Karen, sadly died 18 months ago at the age of 50. She had been suffering from metastatic uterine sarcoma – a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

He was determined to try and stay positive and to raise some money for charity in her name.

James has already completed 10 marathons so far this year in Kent (twice), Malta, Caldicote, Shropshire (twice), Paris, Brighton and Milton Keynes – normally finishing in a time of around five hours.

He runs them so frequently that he doesn’t need to do much training between each event, covering around 10 to 15 miles a week.

James said: “I used to do a bit of cycling, and play football, but I would struggle to run two or three miles.

“But my body is used to marathons now. Brendan Foster [the former long-distance runner and Great North Run founder] says pretty much anyone can do a marathon if they put the training in and he was right.”

Sarcoma UK is the only cancer charity in the UK focusing on all types of sarcoma.

Sarcomas are rare cancers that develop in the muscle, bone, nerves, cartilage, tendons, blood vessels and the fatty and fibrous tissues.

They can affect almost any part of the body, on the inside or the outside.

James has currently raised around £500 for Sarcoma UK but is appealing for help to boost his total this year.